Drawing on Students’ Worlds in the ELA Classroom

Richard Beach is Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, USA.Limarys Caraballo is Associate Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA.

"A fresh and stimulating perspective on drawing creatively from student perspectives and experiences. Here we have clarity, scholarship, and strong arguments for learning about human abilities by listening intently and recognizing the immense power of student experiences and feelings. Fascinating and persuasive exemplars throughout the volume."--Shirley Brice Heath, Professor Emerita, Stanford University, USA"What would it mean if teachers and students were to juxtapose the social practices of their everyday lives outside of school with those of the secondary English language arts classroom? How might they use such juxtapositions to author new ‘worlds’ in which caring, mutuality, curiosity, wonder, justice, and community were core. Building on classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students, Beach and Caraballo provide educators with classroom models, practices, a language, and a philosophy for crafting a new vision of the English language arts classroom. --David Bloome, Professor Emeritus of Literacy Education, The Ohio State University, USA

• Part I: Overall Framing of Co-Authoring Practices in Figure Worlds Chapter 1: Students Co-Authoring Figured Worlds Chapter 2: Co-Authoring Practices Through Components Constituting Figured World Chapter 3: Fostering Co-authoring of Figured Worlds in the Classroom Chapter 4: Engaging Students in Research on Their Participation in Figured Worlds Chapter 5: Engaging Students in YPAR as Critical Social Action Part II: Students Co-authoring Different Figured Worlds Chapter 6: YPAR as Figured World: Co-authoring Identities, Literacies, and Activism by Limarys Caraballo Chapter 7: Co-Authoring Peer Group Figured Worlds Chapter 8: Co-authoring Extracurricular Worlds Chapter 9: Co-Authoring Sports Figured Worlds Chapter 10: Co-Authoring Family Figured Worlds Chapter 11: Co-Authoring Workplace Figured Worlds Chapter 12: Co-authoring Popular Culture/Virtual Media Worlds Part III: Implications for Teaching Chapter 13: Implications for Teaching: Bringing Students’ Worlds into the Classroom